Starting grouting, & the Solar Heating

I grouted a couple of small areas: by the shower, and by the door.

I can't do much more as I am still waiting for the builders' merchants to get the edging strip that I have ordered. Thanks, Point P, you're now more than a week later than you said.

Here's the entry to the shower:



In the corner the grouting gets wider towards the top, but it's set nicely and looks like a good seal, and I imagine people won't notice. Or not often. At the right hand edge it makes a good finish up against the new architrave strip.

Over by the door, I had the opposite problem: fitting the narrow strip of vertical tiles resulted in a join in the corner that would have been better if it was a bit wider. But it will be behind the door most of the time (when I put the door back on its hinges) so I'm not too concerned.



There's an odd level change up at the top corner, as there was before I tiled it (the door-frame projects more into the bathroom on the right than it does on the left), but it is hardly noticeable. Once the new architrave/moulding strips are painted the same colour as the rest of the wood, it should look as if it was always meant to be that way.

I'm pleased with the colour of the grout against the lighter and darker tiles. I wondered at first whether the lighter tiles ought to have a lighter grout, but seeing it actually done makes it look almost professional!

Solar Panels

The solar heating has been in action now for a year. In 2011 the pump was in action for 1,352 hours, a bit under an average four hours a day. For 2012 I've reset the controller to give me an additional record, of kilowatt-hours: it measures the fluid temperature as it comes into, and goes out of, the hot water cylinder. That temperature drop represents the amount of heat transferred, and there's a flow-meter to calculate the total useful input. It won't measure the heat put into the pool, so it'll be a conservative estimate of the efficiency of the system.

But it worked well last year: from April to October we only had to turn on the boiler on a few odd days when it had been overcast for a few days. For the rest of the time, all our hot water was provided by the sun.

Not a lot of sun recently, however: and there's a fair bit of snow forecast for the coming week.